Automated data backup just got more affordable and interesting for the mainstream user. Meet Drobo – The world’s first storage robot.
Drobo keeps your data safe by automatically monitoring and reparing problems that could put your data to risk. Drobo also automatically controls all aspects of your storage management. There’s no configuration or management consoles — Essentially, Drobo does all the work for you, handling any complex storage management. Data Robotics, who created Drobo, claims Drobo beats RAID hands down.
Since our hard drives are getting filled up with a whole lot of rich media (photos, video, movies, music, etc.), our storage needs are growing. That’s the cool thing about Drobo, you can set it up with just a couple of hard drives and grow from there. You can upgrade your capacity on-the-fly and add drives to Drobo at any time. You can even mix ‘n match capacities, brands or speeds. This allows you to have no downtime, data migration or waiting to access new capacity.
At $499 USD (at the time of this article), you get security – non-stop data protection – if the status lights are green, your data is safe. Drobo has a simple LED management that are as simple as a traffic light. In addition to the green (safe) lights, you have yellow which means Drobo is 85% full and red, which means your data is not safe so you should add or replace a drive immediately.
Drobo Specs:
- 3.5″ SATA I or SATA II hard disk drives
- Full or half-height, no carriers required
- Choose the drive manufacturer, capacity (mixed capacities ok), and spindle speed or cache that fits your current storage needs
Drobo’s Size: Width Height Length
inches 6.3 6.3 10.7
mm 152.4 160.02 271.78
Power
- Idle system (standby, drives off) = 5 watts
- Typical idle system – idle, drive spin down mode (one drive) = 12 watts
- Typical busy system (four drives) = 40 watts
Input
100-240V AC, 50/60 Hz
Box Content
- Drobo storage robot
- External power supply with U.S. 110V AC power cord
- 6′ USB 2.0 cable
- User Guide and Quick Start Instructions
- Drobo Resource CD includes:
° Drobo Dashboard Software
° Help files
° How-to Videos
° Electronic Documentation
Operating System Support
- Windows 2000 (Professional, Server, Advanced Server)
- Windows 2003 Server
- Windows XP (Home, Professional, Media Center Edition)
- Windows Vista (Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Ultimate)
- Apple OS-X 10.4 and later
File System Support
Certification: Emissions
FCC Part 15 Class B and Safety: UL, cUL
System Management
- Automatic (No software required)
- Optional Drobo Dashboard Software Included
Security
Kensington lock port (lock not included)
Warranty
1 Year Limited Warranty
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